Choosing a new car tips

[Nickyyy]

Check out the Volkswagen Polo 1.2 S 55 5dr [AC]--IDEAL FIRST CAR--LOVELY ORDER-- I found on UsedCarsNI!
UsedCarsNI.com - 2003 Volkswagen Polo 1.2 S 55 5dr [AC]--IDEAL FIRST CAR--LOVELY ORDER--

There you go. Job jobbed

 

[DriftnSlide]

Expensive for a 2003 motor.

 

[Shannonsir]

I personally wouldn't want the outlay of finance on top of high insurance premiums for young drivers and your weekly fuel bill , you could be easily talking £5/600 a month just for the aforementioned combined, you'd be putting some hours in as a student to cover that . Keep the cost down, buy a cheap car outright and if it breaks let it sit there until you can afford to fix it. Unless of course your part time job is going to pay exceptionally well or you're prepared to work 25-30 hours a week minimum for something fresh.

Just my 2 cents

 

[veedubnoodle]

Can't agree enough with all the comments on here, stay away from finance until you have a secure full time job.

That said, I'm glad to see there are still some young people interested in cars coming here for advice, welcome to RMS.

Get yourself a cheap wee runabout for your first year instead and build up some no claims bonus. Do your research before buying, do as many quotes as you like on different cars to see what's cheap to insure within your budget and if something does break on it there are many people on here to offer advice or maybe even help.

Good luck.

 

[gcon45]

You sound like a very sensible, level headed young fella @user20. I’m surprised there are any of you left to be honest.

I would echo the sentiments of others in regard to a first car.
Buy a well looked after sub 1K car that is cheap to repair if something does go wrong (like a MK4 Golf).

Finance is all well and good when you’re full time employed but you’ll appreciate a newer car more when the time comes.

 

[Deleted member 13907]

I would say your first step needs to be to work out your budget.
Are you planning to start full-time work after your exams, or are you going into further/higher education, with a part-time job?
What about next year and the year after that?
That should give you some idea of how much you could potentially afford to be spending on Tax, Insurance, Repairs/Maintenance, etc. each month.
Working back from that should start to give you some idea of what cars would potentially work for you.
Personally I'd be trying a whole range of different scenarios on the insurance comparison websites (maybe using fake email addresses) to give you an insight into what is going to be the most affordable to insure.
My first car of my own was a 1995 Ford Escort 1.6 Mexico (basically a limited edition Si) that cost £600 to buy and £2400 to insure for a year - at that time a smaller engine wasn't going to work out much cheaper, so I went with something I wanted. Parts were dirt cheap from the scrapyard - it was 11/12 years old at the time, but the scrapyard was full of them.

 

[NickR]

My first car was a 1.1 fiesta with 4 gears and cost me £2500 to insure. It wasnt the fanciest car out there but I loved it. Gave me the independence and freedom to go where I wanted, when I wanted. The car itself I got for free as the engine was seized and I got a replacement engine for £80

 

[Jecks]

I remember working with a guy , albeit 20 years ago, had a new ford ka and he was using basically close to 3weeks wages out of 4 to pay insurance, finance, petrol etc.

1st car was a rwd twincam , actually first 4 cars were twincams, oh the memories....
Had it when I was 16 and used to go out the front and start it up and reverse it about 10 foot back and forth, thought I was the business
Insurance was ridiculous

I remember taking a notion for a crx vtec and rang to check insurance, I still remember the quote to this day
£7k

 

[Cossers]

Never paid over £750 fully comp in my life form I was 17 and had a few intresting ones in that tinc tvr and Porsche!

I remember working with a guy , albeit 20 years ago, had a new ford ka and he was using basically close to 3weeks wages out of 4 to pay insurance, finance, petrol etc.

1st car was a rwd twincam , actually first 4 cars were twincams, oh the memories....
Had it when I was 16 and used to go out the front and start it up and reverse it about 10 foot back and forth, thought I was the business
Insurance was ridiculous

I remember taking a notion for a crx vtec and rang to check insurance, I still remember the quote to this day
£7k

£7k quote, wow, never paid over a tenth of that, for any car I’ve had fully comp!

 

[veedubnoodle]

My first motor was a 2000 1.2 5dr Clio (5dr being loads cheaper to insure than a 3dr) and it was a little over £1300 to insure for the first year. Hardly used any fuel for the amount of raking about I did, wasn't quick enough to get into any real trouble with and when it broke it wasn't expensive or hard to fix

 

[Jamie-g]

I remember working with a guy , albeit 20 years ago, had a new ford ka and he was using basically close to 3weeks wages out of 4 to pay insurance, finance, petrol etc.

1st car was a rwd twincam , actually first 4 cars were twincams, oh the memories....
Had it when I was 16 and used to go out the front and start it up and reverse it about 10 foot back and forth, thought I was the business
Insurance was ridiculous

I remember taking a notion for a crx vtec and rang to check insurance, I still remember the quote to this day
£7k

I wanted a mk3 vr6 golf when I was 17 open and direct wanted £21k.

 

[Ricky]

You sound like a very sensible, level headed young fella @user20. I’m surprised there are any of you left to be honest.

I would echo the sentiments of others in regard to a first car.
Buy a well looked after sub 1K car that is cheap to repair if something does go wrong (like a MK4 Golf).

Finance is all well and good when you’re full time employed but you’ll appreciate a newer car more when the time comes.

Haha cheers mate, yeah agree with you 110% about the rest

Yeah I’d be wary about entering a finance agreement. So do you think I should buy a car for £1k or less? How old a car should it be? For example, would a 2001 car be too old?

 

[Father Stack]

It's 100% down to the car. I had a 2013 VW Polo as my first car which threw the gearbox out after 12k miles. I then had a 1991 Mk2 Jetta which gave absolutely no bother at all. My folks had the gearbox explode in a 2 year old Rover 75. It's pot luck.

I don't believe the age of a car matters in regard to it's reliability. Same as mileage. It's mostly down to how a car has been treated and looked after.

If I was in your shoes - I'd be buying something older and a little bit different, but clean and well looked after. A nice clean Mk3 Golf, for example. Thing with the older stuff as well is you can have a go at maintaining/fixing it yourself should anything go wrong, which will be a great learning curve.

 

[roverspeed]

have to agree with the sentiments above, get something older but decent condition.

Mechanically simple and not rust prone. (if such a thing exists) and get some miles/experience under your belt.

My first car was 1994 Rover 214 and my first years insurance back in 2002 was £2200

Keep your nose clean and it will go down fairly rapidly, especially if you aren't getting into performance/risky cars.

 

[CharlySkunkWeed]

Wonder how many readers of this thread are financed to the hilt on their cars